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Water Body Type
Water Body Type
There are many terminologies for water bodies. In general,
brooks, streams, and creeks are similar terms. A river is a stream of
water of considerable volume, which travels downhill (from higher altitudes
to lower altitudes due to gravity). Rainfall will seep into the ground
or become runoff, which flows downhill into rivers. Typically, creeks
and brooks are smaller than streams while rivers are much larger than
streams and other flowing water sources. Little creeks or streams merge
to form small rivers then become medium-sized rivers. These rivers may
be tributaries of a large river which can eventually flow into the ocean.
This interconnection between streams and rivers form watersheds.
Mid-Atlantic Integrated Assessment (MAIA) http://www.epa.gov/maia/index.html
Water Quality Research Database
Estuary
A place where fresh and salt water mix, such as a bay,
salt marsh, or where a river enters an ocean.
National Estuary Program http://www.epa.gov/owow/estuaries/
Ground Water
The supply of fresh water found beneath the earth's surface,
usually in aquifers, which supply wells and springs. Because groundwater
is a major source of drinking water, there is growing concern over contamination
from leaching agricultural or industrial pollutants and leaking underground
storage tanks. The subsurface water that occurs beneath the water table
in soils and geologic formations that are fully saturated (Groundwater,
Freeze and Cherry, 1979).
http://www.epa.gov/ada/
Lake
A considerable body of inland water or an expanded part
of a river.
Clean Lakes (http://www.epa.gov/owow/lakes/index.html)
Great Lakes National Program Office (http://www.epa.gov/grtlakes/)
U.S. EPA Great Lakes Program (http://www.epa.gov/glnpo/)
The Great Lakes: An Environmental Atlas and Resource Book (3rd ed.) http://www.epa.gov/glnpo/atlas/intro.html
Ocean
The body of salt water which covers nearly three fourths
of the surface of the globe. The water, whose composition is fairly constant,
contains on the average 3½ percent of dissolved salts; of this
solid portion, common salt forms about 78 percent, magnesium salts 15–16
percent, calcium salts 4 percent, with smaller amounts of various other
substances. The density of ocean water is about 1.026 (relative to distilled
water, or pure H2O). The ocean bottom is a generally level or gently undulating
plain, covered with a fine red or gray clay, or, in certain regions, with
ooze of organic origin.
http://www.epa.gov/OWOW/oceans/index.html
http://www.epa.gov/adopt/
Receiving Water
Creeks, streams, rivers, lakes, estuaries, groundwater formations, or other bodies of water into which surface water and/or treated or untreated waste are discharged, either naturally or in man-made sytems.
Reservoir/Supply
A reservoir can be any natural or artificial holding area used to store,regulate, or control water.
River
A natural stream of water of considerable volume, larger
than a brook or creek.
American Heritage Rivers (http://www.epa.gov/rivers/)
Stream
A body of flowing water; natural water course containing water at least part of the year. In hydrology, it is generally applied to the water flowing in a natural channel as distinct from a canal.
Wetland
An area that is saturated by surface water or groundwater
with vegetation adapted for life under those soil conditions, as in swamps,
bogs, fens, marshes, and estuaries.
Wetlands Homepage http://www.epa.gov/OWOW/wetlands/index.html
Wetlands Homepage America's Wetlands http://www.epa.gov/OWOW/wetlands/vital/toc.html